Bill Gates said divorcing Melinda after 27 years of marriage will always be the thing that he regrets the most in his life. In an interview with the Times of London, he said though he is more cheerful now, the divorce thing was miserable for both him and Melinda for at least two years and this will remain on the top of the chart of his regrets. “Melinda and I still see each other — we have three kids and two grandchildren so there are family events. The kids are doing well. They have good values,” Bill said.
Bill Gates,69, is now dating Paula Hurd, 62, the widow of Oracle CEO Mark Hudd. Melinda, 60, has also moved on with her new boyfriend, entrepreneur Philip Vaughn.
“When Melinda and I met, I was fairly successful but not ridiculously successful — that came during the time that we were together. So, she saw me through a lot. When we got divorced it was tough and then she made the decision to leave the foundation — I was disappointed that she took the option to go off,” Bill Gates said.
Bill and Melinda were married in 1994 and have three kids Jennifer, 28, Rory, 25 and Phoebe, 22. They announced their split in May 2021 and said that they had been living separately for a year. Bill earlier admitted that he caused pain when she confronted him about a report that he’d had an affair with a Microsoft employee. “I certainly made mistakes, and I take responsibility,” he replied, adding, “I don’t think delving into the particulars at this point is constructive, but yes, I caused pain, and I feel terrible about that.”
Another factor contributing to their split was Bill’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein. “I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no. I made that clear to him,” Melinda said in an interview. “He was abhorrent. He was evil personified.” Bill has called his working relationship with Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, a “mistake.”
